Development Origins An artist's rendering of the X-37 spacecraft in 1999 The seventh mission launched on 28 December 2023 on a Falcon Heavy rocket, to fly in new orbital regimes. The sixth mission launched on an Atlas V on and concluded on 12 November 2022, reaching a total of 908 days in orbit. Subsequent flights gradually extended the mission duration, reaching 780 days in orbit for the fifth mission, the first to launch on a Falcon 9 rocket. Īn X-37 first flew during a drop test in 2006 its first orbital mission was launched in April 2010 on an Atlas V rocket, and returned to Earth in December 2010. Until 2019, the program was managed by Air Force Space Command. The X-37 began as a NASA project in 1999, before being transferred to the United States Department of Defense in 2004. It is a 120-percent-scaled derivative of the earlier Boeing X-40. The X-37 is operated by the Department of the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office, in collaboration with United States Space Force, for orbital spaceflight missions intended to demonstrate reusable space technologies. It is boosted into space by a launch vehicle, then re-enters Earth's atmosphere and lands as a spaceplane.
The Boeing X-37, also known as the Orbital Test Vehicle ( OTV), is a reusable robotic spacecraft.
